[antimedia] antimedia: Following what is now a familiar pattern....

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Posted by antimedia:
Following what is now a familiar pattern....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1176263002.shtml


   ....the media [1]inflated the numbers of anti-US protestors that
   demonstrated in Iraq and ignored the counter demonstration that was
   almost as large.

     Of all of the 1,800 plus articles published yesterday on the Al
     Sadr Anti-US-occupation protest in Najaf, Iraq, not one mentioned
     that the turnout was way below what was expected and hoped for by
     the media and the pro-Iranian Muqtada al-Sadr.
     Both the Associated Press and New York Times reported that "tens of
     thousands" attended the protest.
     From the pictures that were released by the MSM of the protest it
     was impossible to tell exactly how many showed up to stomp on and
     burn the US flag.
     The Weekly Standard Blog was the first to report that turnout was
     far below what was expected:

     The demonstration in Najaf has been muted. While Middle East Online
     claimed "hundreds of thousands of Shiites burned and trampled on US
     flags," the reality is the protest was far smaller than Sadr would
     have liked. Reuters puts the protest size in the thousands, and
     during a press round table briefing today, Rear Admiral Mark Fox
     noted that the Coalition is closely monitoring the protest, and put
     the number of demonstrators between 5,000 and 7,000. The protest is
     monitored both on the ground and via air, which allows for a
     relatively accurate count of the number of protesters. Sadr's weak
     showing during the April 9 protests highlights the setbacks he has
     suffered both politically and militarily since the inception of the
     Baghdad Security plan and his flight to Iran.

   The folks at E&P were positively orgasmic about the protests, calling
   them [2]"huge" and contrasting them derisively with an administration
   spokesman who said that the protests showed that Iraqis are free to
   protest now, which they could not do when Saddam was in power. By E&P
   standards the Gathering of Eagles must have been ginormous, as Will
   Farrell would say. Of course, they didn't report that either.
   Omar, who actually lives in Iraq, had [3]a slightly different take on
   the protests.

     Speaking of the Sadrists' pitiful demonstrations. His aides were
     hoping to gather a million marchers for yesterday but all they
     could manage were less than ten thousands, that's even when they
     bussed people from Baghdad and Basra.
     The Arabic-speaking al-Alam Iranian channel claims the number was
     "hundreds of thousands" but that's just al-Alam, other channels and
     the footage we saw all put the number between 5 and 10 thousand.
     I had personally been to a demonstration of 10 thousands once and
     what I saw yesterday was definitely smaller.
     Flying Iraqi flags in large numbers is another exposed cheap trick
     combining methods from both Hezbollah and Saddam.
     Replacing partisan sectarian banners with the national flag was
     likely inspired from Hezbollah's rallies in Lebanon. Both movements
     desperately try to show themselves as patriotic movements because
     they realize the others see them as Iran's tools.
     On the other hand the way the flags were gathered is a trademark of
     the Ba'ath work; the flags that were carried during the
     demonstration as well as the flags that were seen hanging on walls
     in Baghdad were not donated by NGO's, nor bought with Sadr's money.
     Elements of the Mehdi army paid visits to hundreds of shops and
     stores in several neighborhoods in Baghdad and "asked" the owners
     for money to buy flags; 6,000 dinars ($5) from stores on main
     streets and 2,000 dinars from stores in the alleys. This is exactly
     what the Ba'ath thugs used to do; using intimidation to steal
     hard-earned money from hardworking Iraqis to decorate their false
     demonstrations with posters and portraits.

   Too bad the folks from MoveOn didn't donate to their cause. Maybe
   somebody forgot to tell them?

References

   1. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/04/busted-multi-national-forces-iraq.html
   2. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003569090
   3. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2007/04/fierce-fighting-in-central-baghdad.html